Equilibrium adsorption along with isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were employed to investigate the adsorption of Pseudomonas putida on kaolinite and montmorillonite. A higher affinity as well as larger amounts of adsorption of P. putida was found on kaolinite. The majority of sorbed bacterial cells (88.7%) could be released by water from montmorillonite, while only a small proportion (9.3%) of bacteria desorbed from kaolinite surface. More bacterial cells were observed to form aggregates with kaolinite, while fewer cells were within the larger bacteria-montmorillonite particles. The sorption of bacteria on kaolinite was enthalpically more favorable than that on montmorillonite. Based on our findings, it is proposed that the non-electrostatic forces other than electrostatic force play a more important role in bacterial adsorption by kaolinite and montmorillonite. Adsorption of bacteria on clay minerals resulted in obvious shifts of infrared absorption bands of water molecules, showing the importance of hydrogen bonding in bacteria-clay mineral adsorption. The enthalpies of -4.1+/-2.1 x 10(-8) and -2.5+/-1.4 x 10(-8)mJ cell(-1) for the adsorption of bacteria on kaolinite and montmorillonite, respectively, at 25 degrees C and pH 7.0 were firstly reported in this paper. The enthalpy of bacteria-mineral adsorption was higher than that reported previously for bacteria-biomolecule interaction but lower than that of bacterial coaggregation. The bacteria-mineral adsorption enthalpies increased at higher temperature, suggesting that the enthalpy-entropy compensation mechanism could be involved in the adsorption of P. putida on clay minerals. Data obtained in this study would provide valuable information for a better understanding of the mechanisms of mineral-microorganism interactions in soil and associated environments.